After purchasing Twitter and renaming it X, Elon Musk is considering making the online portal paid in the future. However, he does not cite financial problems as a reason.
Using online platform X, formerly Twitter, will soon no longer be free. Company owner Elon Musk said on Monday that he could imagine a “small” monthly contribution being paid to all users in the future to take action against fake user accounts called bots.
Musk sees no other option
Bots are user accounts that are run by computer programs rather than directly by human users. There are many automatically created accounts in X that can be used to influence online discussions.
Creating and running bots currently costs “a fraction of a penny,” Musk said. So if the accounts cost a few dollars, that will increase the cost of the bots many times over. “And every time you have a new bot, you have to find a new payment method,” he continued.
Huge drop in ad revenue since acquisition
The multi-billionaire bought Twitter for $44 billion last year and has significantly transformed his network since then. It has laid off thousands of employees, introduced a paid bonus offer, reduced active moderation of online content and lifted bans on controversial users such as former US President Donald Trump. In July, Musk said the company’s advertising revenue had halved since the acquisition.
- Twitter became X.com – Elon Musk replaced the blue bird with X
Musk met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday. The chat, broadcast live on X, discussed anti-Semitism on the platform, among other issues. Netanyahu specifically asked how X could prevent “bot armies” from fueling anti-Semitism in online discussions.
Source: ZDF
I’m Ashley Robinson, a professional writer and journalist. I specialize in news writing and have been working for the past five years with News Unrolled. My main focus is on technology-related topics, though I also write about politics, healthcare, and business from time to time.
